Your back-to-work cheat sheet

Georgia Waters -Jan 7, 2013

Kickstart your knowledge in the new year. Photo: Jorgen Jacobsen

You're back behind your desk ready (if perhaps a little reluctantly) to get back to work. Get a head start on the new year by catching up on the major news that happened while you were too busy lying on the beach/dozing on the verandah/hiding from the in-laws.

In the US, a deal to avoid the 'fiscal cliff' was finally reached after tense and drawn-out negotiations, with the House of Representatives passing legislation to avert big income tax increases on most Americans and prevent large cuts in spending for the Pentagon and other government programs. Read about the details of the fiscal cliff deal here and about the next crisis - the debt ceiling - here. The deal played out like an episode of The West Wing - US political tragics can read an in-depth feature about it here. (And if you're still not sure what the fiscal cliff is, read about it here.)

Also in the US, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spent three days in hospital after a blood clot was found in a vein between her skull and brain. Doctors said the 65-year-old had not suffered a stroke or any neurological damage.

It's believed the oldest fossils on Earth have been found, in Western Australia. Scientists analysing rocks in the Pilbara discovered traces of a bacteria that lived 3.49 billion years ago, just a billion years after the planet was formed. The find could move scientists one step closer to understanding the first chapters of life on Earth and could also spur the search for ancient life on other planets.

Bushfires that started claiming homes in Tasmania on Friday continue to burn, with more than 100 properties destroyed. As yet, no lives have been lost but insurers have declared bushfire-hit regions a catastrophe. Prime Minister Julia Gillard is set to visit Tasmania today. Meanwhile in New South Wales firefighters are preparing for the most dangerous bushfire conditions in years in Sydney and around the state, with the maximum temperature in inner Sydney and the western suburbs expected to his 43C tomorrow. On Saturday, the NSW town of Hay hit a record-breaking 48C.

New South Wales:

A 49-year-old Sydney mother, Leanne Maurer, died after she accidentally fell into the water from her family's boat in Rose Bay in the early hours of New Year's Eve.